Question for fenderwell header guys/gals

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Josh owen

Bang em till it breaks
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So i recently acquired a 71 duster someone put a 440 in, hacked inners with a torch. What is the easiest way to fix this. Im not opposed to going back to a fenderwell header if i can find a set for a small block. Car will be a street car rarely ever see the track if ever. And will be restored but im not much of a body guy so cutting inners out and replacing is definitely out of my wheel house and budget to pay to have done...i feel like its going to be horribly difficult to patch what was cut out.

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Does anyone make re-pop inner wells? That would be my first choice.

You could stick with fenderwell exit headers, but personally I hate everything about them. They do make them for small blocks too.

YOu could have someone, a good tin man, make you the missing pieces.

I might just strut the front end and do away with the rest if it were mine.
 
Someone cut my car and my dad and I replaced them. It will be way easier with the engine out and the engine bay looks mostly stripped of everything else. Basically go around with a spot weld bit and a grinder and start breaking them free then spot weld them back in. Any 68-73 A will work as a donor. My 69 has 73 inner fenders.
 
IMO, if you're going SB, nix the FWs. With the engine out, I wouldn't expect it too difficult fill in if that's the route you take.
Cutting all the spots out to R&R both inner wells is probably best though. It will open up hard to see areas for rust inspection, especially around those control arm brackets.
 
I don't like fenderwell headers, either. That area you have to cut out is in that corner where some unibody triangulation occurs. IMO, that's a pretty high point of structural integrity in these cars and shouldn't be messed with. I think without the addition of the front part of a cage coming through the firewall (front hoops) that it weakens that whole front clip. I've just never liked doing it. If you put a wanted ad in the classified section, I bet someone has some inner fenders. That may not be the easiest repair, but it's the most correct and will add back the structural integrity your car has lost. Then you can get some nice under chassis headers for your small block.
 
I have several parts cars i can cut apart. Just dont really like tackling jobs like that riaking ruining a rust free car, i thought about removing inners entirely and just adding a cage and tieing it into the front rails but that dont look the best either. I have a few sets of new headman ceramic long tubes i would prefer to run. Thanks for the input the 440 is going away so once its a bare shell I'll see which route i wanna go. If i drill inners out how much risk will there be with the frame rails moving? (without suspension under it) my old man seems to think cutting section out and just tracing it and going that route will be best but.its a right spot.trying to fit along that firewall!
 
trying to fit along that firewall!
There are transitions spot welded on (re-pops available)
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as well as the inner FWs....
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If i drill inners out how much risk will there be with the frame rails moving? (without suspension under it)
If the K member is still in, I wouldn't expect the frame to move. You can also brace the rails across temporarily.
 
Side to side I wasn't worried. I build derby cars so I'm used to fixing bent frames, but they just have to be good enough. I would assume the rails would rise once inners are cut out but i may be wrong. But maybe the weight of k frame would be enough to keep them put
 
1.I don’t know anyone that makes/sells new SB fender well headers. The 2 pair I have are rusty/beat up.
2. The inner fender(apron) is in deed structural and an integral part of unibody construction. Over time the body will get bent and weaken, more HP, quicker it will happen.
3. You can buy repop inner fenders, I have one.

the 66 dart drag car I bought has fenderwell headers Though the car I bought with out a engine, the headers were with it. He told me he was running 10’s with a W2 engine. Either he is not telling the truth or he is lucky to be alive the way the car is set up, maybe both. Any way he ran it, he eventually blew off the drivers side subframe connector. The roll bar is bent to hell and the body is tweaked.
 
If the engine/trans are out, all suspension gone, and front of car is supported by jackstands at the rear of the front frame rails, I don't see why the frame rails would move when the inner fenders are removed. At any rate, I once had fenderwell headers in my 65 Barracuda. Decided to get rid of them. I drilled out the spot welds holding the inner fenders on this car and my parts car, then welded the good inners onto my car. Been back together now for thirty years, no issues that I've ever noticed. 340/4-speed car.
 
AMD makes the inner fenderwells, do not know about availability. Stephen's Performance?
 
IF YOU ARE GOING WITH A SMALL BLOCK, REPAIR THE DAMAGE. THE INNER FENDER WELLS ARE A STRUCTURAL PART OF THE UNIBODY DESIGN!
 
I had both my inner fenders on the fish replaced with New AMD pieces just because all the holes I drilled in the over the years. For cool cans, Coils and Ign Boxes and more!

I changed ignition systems so much it seems, and the car was already old when I got it in 1984.

I wanted to take the torch to it and do Fender wall headers but never did! Glad I did not but still replaced them!

Needless to say I am very Happy with the New AMD inner fenders!
 
When I took my inner fenders out, it was easy because there just spot welded in. You can weld in inner fenders easy even if you never welded before.

And I really mean that.
 
Oh i can weld. I weld everyday..literally just not my strong suite making the welds invisibly smooth. Which is odd because on my derby cars i can cheat the frame welds woth 3 passes and still grind them well enough they pass as stock with some grinding and flash rusting and sticky primer and sand
 
That's the way I'll probably go, rather than patching the holes. But part of me would love to cut inners out entirely and just cage the car and run it out from dash bar to somewhere in front of upper A arm. That would support it also. But im a ways away from this with this car anyways. Just like everyone else i like hearing options from others wiser than myself. Thank you everyone
 
That's the way I'll probably go, rather than patching the holes. But part of me would love to cut inners out entirely and just cage the car and run it out from dash bar to somewhere in front of upper A arm. That would support it also. But im a ways away from this with this car anyways. Just like everyone else i like hearing options from others wiser than myself. Thank you everyone


We likely all have had that feeling at some point or another! These cars are all +50 and the few that are left may change your mind!
 
Course you can always buy a stock of AMD sheet metal for the future and go hog wild :)
 
Ive got a fenderwell header car......
But it's a tube chassis, with the frame tied to the roll cage, the elephant ears, and the coilovers for the straight front axle.
Not a whole lotta help for your situation. Just that it could be another direction. I have no inner fenders at all.
 
Oh i can weld. I weld everyday..literally just not my strong suite making the welds invisibly smooth. Which is odd because on my derby cars i can cheat the frame welds woth 3 passes and still grind them well enough they pass as stock with some grinding and flash rusting and sticky primer and sand
Dude, that's what filler is for. The welds do not have to be "invisibly smooth". When I weld in a patch panel, no matter how good of a job I did, it still needs a little filler. After welding in a patch or a whole panel section, I always grind the welds a smooth and flat as possible, and then I apply a thin layer of an All Metal type filler. It is waterproof. Then I sand it smooth and continue other bodywork from there.
 
^^^ ah that makes me happy ALL the room for headers and working on it. Even my 67 R/T its tight in there with headers
 
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